When you write a text message or an email, you might put a smiling face or other pictures at the end to make the message more fun. These pictures are emojis. The first emojis were on Japanese mobile phones in the 1990s. Later, they were used on Apple's iPhone and Android phones. Now they are everywhere!

Before emojis, there were emoticons. The word is a mixture(混合) of emotion(感情) and icon(图标). Emoticons are made of the signs you can find on your keyboard, for example:) for a smiley or @};—for a rose. The first use of :-)was in 1982 and it was called "joke marker". Emoji is a Japanese word which means pictograph: e(picture) +moji (character). Emojis are real pictures, for example ，or . There are 1851emojis that can be used on mobile phones and other devices. There are all kinds of emojis, from faces and weather to things in the kitchen and animal.

    In England, we have a saying: A picture paints a thousand words. For many people, an emoji is like a punctuation mark(标点). It's like the tone of voice when we speak on the phone, or hand movements(gestures) used in conversation. Emojis are also changing the way we write. The more we use emojis, the less we use slang(俚语), such as LOL or OMG.

    When someone speaks and looks serious, we try to look serious, too, and when someone smiles, we smile as well. This is how we show empathy(同感) and make friends(and enemies!). But when we're online, we can't see the person's face and there's no emotion. The invention of emojis changed that! Scientists in Australia have discovered that when we look at a smiley face online, the same parts of the brain start working as when we look at a real smiley face. Our mood changes, and we try to change our face to match the emoji. This is something we learn as we get older. Our brains have developed this ability over the last two or three years. This means that emojis have created a new brain pattern(模式)in us!

How to be a friend of yourself?

We often pay attention to developing relationships with others. However, we forget the basic step: being friends of ourselves. How can we have good relationships with others if we don't even have good relationships with ourselves?{#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

First, forgive(原谅) yourself. It's true that you are not perfect, and neither is everybody else. It's normal for everyone to make mistakes.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

Second, accept things you can't change. There are many things you cannot change, such as your background and past.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}If you face the things you can't change, just smile and move on.

Third, focus on(聚焦于) your achievements. You can try making a list of your achievements, which do not have to be big things. There are a lot of small but important achievements in our life.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

Last but not least, stop comparing yourself with others. You are unique.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Your success is not determined(决定) by other people. Instead, it is determined by your own life purpose.

Dear Cindy,

Here are some of my favorite photos. Look at this photo! I am   1  a bookstore. I am reading a book. The story is not interesting. I want to play basketball outside,  2  I can't, as the weather is terrible. It is   3  . In the next photo, it's   4  . I'm playing with my sister in the snow. We are   5 sweaters and gloves(手套). It is very   6  , but we are still having a great  7  . Look, we are making a cute snowman. How interesting it is! What about the last photo? I'm   8  my grandparents at the train station. They are coming to my house. I'm surprised to   9  a young man across from the station. He is playing the guitar and singing beautiful songs. Lots of people are giving him   10  . Why is the young man doing that? He is raising money(募捐) for the old who need help!

Yours,

Andy

A. Finish the cloze test.

{#blank#}1{#/blank#}A. in B. with C. near D. behind

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}A. so B. or C. because D. but

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}A. sunny B. rainy C. cool D. warm

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}A. spring B. summer C. autumn D. winter

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}A. buying B. cleaning C. wearing D. selling

{#blank#}6{#/blank#}A. rainy B. cold C. warm D. hot

{#blank#}7{#/blank#}A. place B. time C. class D. party

{#blank#}8{#/blank#}A. thinking of B. writing to C. waiting for D. looking at

{#blank#}9{#/blank#}A. know B. teach C. ask D. see

{#blank#}10{#/blank#}A. money B. food C. books D. balls
 

B. Answer the questions.

What is the young man in the last photo doing?{#blank#}11{#/blank#}

What do you think of the young man?{#blank#}12{#/blank#}

My name is Lin Fei. I'm in No.1 Junior High School in Longyan. I have a new classmate. He is from Sichuan. His name is Jia Liang. He comes to Longyan with his mom and dad.

Jia Liang is a good student. He likes Chinese and math (数学) very much, but his English is poor. Miss Jiang , his English teacher, often(经常) helps him after class (课后). Jia Liang has some friends in Sichuan. He often gets(收到) letters from his friends. He is very happy.

Alice Hou, started Girls in STEM club(俱乐部) in America, tries to help more girls interested in science, technology, engineering and math. 

Do you know Girls in STEM? It's a club for girls. They can learn science here. Alice Hou, a 16-year-old girl from the US, set up(创立) the club. 

Alice loves science, and now she learns computer science at the University of North Texas. She is also good at Chinese dance, and she won the title of Miss Arlington's Outstanding Teen(阿灵顿杰出少年). "When I'm dancing on the stage, I just feel relaxed," Alice said. "But I feel worried(担心的) when I have my science lesson. There are 100 students in my class, but only 11 are girls. " To help more girls to be interested in science. Alice set up STEM. Now,a lot of girls are in the club. They often come to the club after school. In the club, they can learn science by playing interesting games. They can also talk about the school subjects with their friends. 

People in the US like this club. Now many schools have the same clubs. They want more girls to love science.